WRID future still unknown

The DeValls Bluff project, a partnership between the White River Irrigation District and the U.S. Corps of Engineer, is already under construction. Once complete, project director Dennis Carman said the Grand Prairie Irrigation Project would protect “the seriously depleting ground water resource that serves as the so...

Donnie Stroh’s great-grandfather was among the first to farm rice in the Grand Prairie in 1910. He pumped water from about 15-18 feet beneath the surface while today, Stroh is pumping water onto his crop that is about 115 feet beneath the surface. He estimates that his well only has 20 feet of water left until he reaches it’s bottom.

It’s facts that make the DeValls Bluff resident and Grand Prairie Irrigation Project board member nervous.

“In another 10-15 years, I’ll be pumping air,” he said, stressing the importance of the Grand Prairie Irrigation Project.

The DeValls Bluff project, a partnership between the White River Irrigation District and the U.S. Corps of Engineer, is already under construction. Once complete, project director Dennis Carman said the Grand Prairie Irrigation Project would protect “the seriously depleting ground water resource that serves as the source of drinking water and water for irrigating cropland by delivery of excess surface water from the White River to depleted groundwater regions of the Grand Prairie.”

However, the project’s immediate future is still in suspense as it awaits funding. On Tuesday, Carman and Stroh were among local and state leaders who gathered to discuss the project’s future with Major Gen. John Peabody of the Vicksburg District of the Corps of Engineers.

Carman said the meeting allowed them to give Peabody and U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor a tour of the construction sites, an overview of the current construction progress and a chance to share local and state concerns about future progress and federal commitment to the project.

Col. Vernie Reichling, the U.S. Corps of Engineer’s Memphis District Commander, said they are dedicated to completing the project to it’s end; there was never any doubt about it. But, the U.S. Corps of Engineers answers to the public and, right now, that means waiting for authorization to fund the project even if it is longer than they anticipated.

As they wait, Peabody and Pryor said local, state and national leaders need to ensure that the Grand Prairie Irrigation Project’s national significance is shared with as many people as possible.

“The narrative needs to be on what this means to our country because if you can’t grow your crops in fields here, then we can’t feed the mouths of Americans and the world,” Peabody said. “... The narrative that has to be articulated to our country is that this is of national significance and these projects will help us continue to be a world leader in agriculture.”

The project has two contracts nearing completion, including a $30.2 million contract on a pump station and a $10.6 million contract for a pipeline segment that would carry water from the pump station to a planned canal starting northwest of DeValls Bluff near the intersection of Webb Lake Road and Firetower Road. The two contracts are expected to be completed this summer while an inlet canal that would bring water from the river to the pump station has already been completed and six pumps and six motors have been purchased and stored for installation.

Page 2 of 2 - “To date, $102 million in federal investment has been made to build this project. More than $100 million of construction work is shovel ready and awaiting funding,” Carman said.

He said now they are just waiting on funding since additional funding for 2012 has not been authorized.

“The cost of the district operations will continue as well as a probable increase in construction costs,” Carman said. “A delay of one year for whatever reason increases the district long-term cost by $10 million or more. We need to kick this thing in the rear and get it done.”

“We have invested more than $100 million in federal funds and the state has committed significant resources also,” Randy Young, director of the Arkansas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, said. “Not only is it unacceptable to waste that money but we also have a serious groundwater problem that is not going away. We need our Congressional delegation to secure the federal funding to match the commitment by the state of Arkansas to get this project completed.”

It’s a mission that Peabody, Pryor and representatives with Sen. John Boozman and Congressman Rick Crawford said they are still committed to. Pryor said past delegations have worked well together; it’s just a matter of broadening the appeal of the project to show that it’s not just Arkansas farmers affected, but a wider audience. Another goal he said is to find “long-term, consistant funding.”